"But first he grasps within his awful hand
The mark of sovereign power, the magic wand:
With this he draws the ghosts from hollow graves,
With this he drives them down the Stygian waves,
With this he seals in sleep the wakeful sight,
And eyes, though closed in death,
restores
to light.
Camoes - Lusiades
--_Ed._
[147] _The Lusian pride, etc._--Magalhaens, a most celebrated navigator,
neglected by Emmanuel, king of Portugal, offered his service to the king
of Spain, under whom he made most important discoveries round the
Straits which bear his name, and in parts of South America. Of this hero
see further, Lusiad X., in the notes.
[148] Mercury.
[149] Mombas, a seaport town on an island of the same name off the coast
of Zanguebar, East Africa.--_Ed._
[150] Mercury, so called from Cyll?n?, the highest mountain in the
Peloponnesus, where he had a temple, and on which spot he is said to
have been born.--_Ed._
[151] Petasus.
[152] The caduceus, twined with serpents.--_Ed.
_
[153]
"But first he grasps within his awful hand
The mark of sovereign power, the magic wand:
With this he draws the ghosts from hollow graves,
With this he drives them down the Stygian waves,
With this he seals in sleep the wakeful sight,
And eyes, though closed in death,
restores
to light.
"
AENEID, iv. 242. (Dryden's Trans.)
[154] Mercury.
[155] Diomede, a tyrant of Thrace, who fed his horses with human flesh;
a thing, says the grave Castera, almost incredible. Busiris was a king
of Egypt, who sacrificed strangers.
_Quis ... illaudati nescit Busiridis aras?_
VIRG. Geor. iii.
Hercules vanquished both these tyrants, and put them to the same
punishments which their cruelty had inflicted on others. Isocrates
composed an oration in honour of Busiris; a masterly example of Attic
raillery and satire.
